Spectrometry and reactivity of phenalenyl anions

The aromatic odd‐alternant phenalenyl anion and a number of its derivatives were prepared in order to study the perturbation of this conjugated anion by methyl and methoxy groups. The conjugated anions were studied by means of 1H and 13C NMR spectrometry, alkylation experiments and semi‐empirical calculations. It was found that a substituent at a charged carbon atom perturbs the entire conjugated system, whereas substituents at inactive (uncharged) carbon atoms have a large effect on the positions ortho to the substituent.